Open letter to DFID regarding Alif Ailaan, Part II

I wrote a letter to DFID, UKaid a few weeks ago expressing my concern over a campaign by Alif Ailaan unfairly targeting the federal government to increase spending on education to 4% of GDP. I have now received a response from DFID. Since Alif Ailaan (AA) ran a public campaign and I raised my objections via an open letter it's only appropriate that I share their response publicly as well. Their letter is reproduced below

Following are some of my comments in response.

The letter says that the campaign does not exclusively target the finance minister. I am not aware of all the fine details of Alif Ailaans campaign but as a member of the general public I found the targeting was quite obvious. Not only did the campaign directly address the finance minister, it completely omitted the four chief ministers with whom the decision to allocate resources actually lies. The four provincial governments in Pakistan are headed by four different political parties. Alif Ailaan could have ran a better campaign by encouraging healthy competition between the four governments. By making the federal government a convenient escape goat for the provincial governments, AA has actually done a dis-service to the cause of education in Pakistan.

The main argument put forth by DFID/AA for targeting the federal government is that the centre needs to create 'fiscal space' for the provinces, enabling them to increase their education spending. Firstly, as the DFID letter clearly states, fiscal space needs to be created through the National Finance Commission. This allocation is not made in the federal budget! What then is the purpose of this campaign at the time of the federal budget apart from political point-scoring? Secondly, the share of provinces was increased from 47% to 57.5% when education was devolved from the centre to the provinces creating fiscal space for them. It is up to the provinces to allocate resources as per their priorities from these funds. Thirdly, even if the centre were to increase the size of the divisible pool it would have no constitutional authority to dictate education spending to the provinces. The finance minister is not legally empowered "to ensure that 4% of national income is spent on education."

The response also mentions a "write a letter" campaign where public were asked to urge the finance minister to increase education spending. I have not seen any such campaign perhaps because it was not as aggressively promoted. Nevertheless the target of these letters should have been the provincial Chief Ministers and not the Finance Minister.

Most importantly, DFID/AA need to re-assess the validity of their assumption that it's the lack of fiscal space that is hampering education spending by provinces. Recent news stories suggest otherwise. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government could spend only Rs9.3bn of the total development budget of Rs19.9bn for elementary and secondary education as of June 5, 2015! 

I believe that the AA campaign is based on false assumptions, is wrongly targeted and poorly executed. I have little doubt that, sadly, it will fail in producing any tangible results.

An open letter to DFID regarding political activities of Alif Ailaan

I would like to share my concerns with you regarding furthering of a political agenda by a DFID funded NGO, Alif Ailaan (AA) in Pakistan. For the last several weeks, a television / print campaign has been launched on Pakistani media that apparently aims to pressure the Federal Government into increasing budgetary allocation for education to 4% of GDP. I have no objection to the underlying goal but the campaign reeks of a political agenda to misguide the Pakistani public into believing that resource allocation for education is primarily the responsibility of the Federal Government.

I am sure AA is well aware that after the 18th constitutional amendment, education is a Provincial subject. Resource allocation for education is the decision made independently by each of the Provincial governments and has nothing to do with the centre. Yet AA repeatedly names the Federal Government and the Federal finance minister in its campaign with absolutely no mention of the Provincial Chief Ministers or the Provincial governments. The general Pakistani public is not aware of where the constitutional responsibility lies and is likely to be misled into blaming the Federal Government for the lack of fund allocation to education. The Federal Government already distributes 57.5% of the divisible pool among the provinces and it has no control over how each province decides to allocate these resources. Even if the Federal Government were to increase the divisible pool, it would have no constitutional authority to specify Provincial budgetary allocation for education.

AA, in its defense, might cite Article 25A of the constitution which reads:

The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.

A cursory reading might lead one to believe that this puts the burden on the Federal Government but if we look up the definition of “the State” in Article 7 of the constitution, it reads

“the State" means the Federal Government, Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), a Provincial Government, a Provincial Assembly, and such local or other authorities in Pakistan as are by law empowered to impose any tax or cess.

Other justifications that AA might put forward include promises made in the ruling party’s manifesto. All parties should be held accountable but only to the extent of the provinces where they hold sufficient majority to influence budgetary allocation.

I have expressed my concerns openly on twitter tagging AA’s twitter handle @alifailaan but no clarification or justification has been put forth in response. I request you to kindly look into the matter and advise AA to refrain from using DFID funds to further political agendas of its management. This money will produce better results if spent on ensuring judicious use of allocated funds in the provinces.

Sincerely

@SaudSami
A Concerned Pakistani Citizen